I am trying to find a way to create a column that will hold and display the author's last name only. I created such a column but I have to hand enter the name. I use this to create my download file name, (Poe-Raven, The.epub)

I would also like to know how I can get the new title_sort field to display as a column and also use it to create my download name. I have been doing this by had as well.

You have to create a composite column and use the template language. See User Manual for details on the template language. This is not an area of the code I work on/use, so I can't be more specific than that.

I am trying to find a way to create a column that will hold and display the author's last name only. I created such a column but I have to hand enter the name. I use this to create my download file name, (Poe-Raven, The.epub)

I would also like to know how I can get the new title_sort field to display as a column and also use it to create my download name. I have been doing this by had as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and regards - John

Hi John
I need to see an example of the info you have in the Authors and Author_sort fields too figure this out.

However if you create a custom column, choose Column Type as "Column built from other columns", enter

Code:

{title_sort}

in the template field should work.
But maybe I'm not quite understanding your request.

I created an additional column the I use to hand enter the last name of the author. The original, full name, column is still there so there is no confusion in Calibre. And since the metadata is still intact the file name has no effect on the readers.

But it helps with the Sony which allows sorting by file name - no change to the display. Where it is really handy is with the JetBook Lite. It is a pure DOS file system so I setup folders with genre names and place the books in them. I wanted the last name only so that it would be an author sort but would take up minimum space allowing me to see as much of the title as possible.

The question is moot now. Since I have to set up some sort of template to have my "lastname" field automated and I am to lazy to learn how to do that, I will just leave well enough alone.

Hi John
Sorry to ask this, but .. did you remember to click Apply when creating the custom column before leaving the costum column window ?

Yes I did, but thanks for the reminder.

My solution was about the same sort of thing. The column was created but displayed off screen and then, I didn't remember that you had to create the column for each library. Oh well, I'll just chalk it up to "old timers disease", with my apologies to the forum members.

I'm sorry but by the time I reached "Hey, neat! This is starting to make sense!
", I was so confused, my eyes were crossing and glazing over and I had the starts of a headache. Seriously, it may make sense to you but it won't to everyone (especially me; having ADD, I had serious trouble trying to stay focussed on it).